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When my Jazz bass was out of action in the mid -'70s I put my Jazz bass pickups and bridge on a Musicmaster bass. Over the next few years I built two others--one with a DiMarzio bass humbucker and one with a P-bass pickup. Like the first one I built I replaced the Musicmaster bridge. All of them were light and fun to play. Wish I had any of those little guys today.

The little Bronco that ambushed me at GC has become a really great bass. At 6 1/2 lbs and upgraded electronics, tuners, bridge, strings and a BiSonic pickup it's almost freaky.

I really like light weight and short scale. I'm eyeing some mahogany and Black Walnut boards that were milled over a 100 years ago. I haven't built a bass from the ground up since I retired but I'm encouraged to start one. The weight of the Black Walnut isn't the lightest tonewood so I figure I'll make it semi hollow. I've already pulled the boards and inventoried my parts stock, roughed out a design last night and have been considering pickup selection.

I haven't found a floating bridge that has decent intonation adjustment, yet. I'm not adverse to the pinned bridge, they look kind of cool but a bit bulky. The tail piece and an elegant "adjustable" floating bridge could be done lighter than the anchored string clamp and pinned bridge, and project the thin streamlined look of a short scale streamlined instrument with classical lines.

In my opinion, or sense of design. I'll take a measurement of the Max and average range of this adjustment on all my short scales and perhaps machine my own tail piece and bridge. I'm also considering slot head tuning machine, if it can be done without adding a bulky look to the headstock. I'd also like to do it in solid copper but I doubt I could pull off copper machine heads, maybe copper wings on brass machines could be done.

The old Framus had a decent set up, intonation is really close. The floating bridge has a cover and under it a fair amount of adjustment.

The way the tailpiece and bridge seem to float, un anchored, above the surface of the body adds a lightness/airiness aspect to the appearance. It also seems to bridge the traditional aspects of stringed instruments to early contemporary electric instruments in a more subtle way than the blocks of metal used to anchor and adjust the strings, used today. Form over function I guess. No argument that the new block type are intonating state of the art and detract little when mounted on a slab bodied electrinc, but to me they seem a bit out of place on a carved top semi acoustic.

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